8.8

Warm water poured from the showerhead above Eve as the recent repair to her Hut showed full value. She was still quite far from the level of comfort reached on Tal Mor before arriving at the Prison Plane, but it was merely a question of bodies now. A question of mana from meat, quality gained by quantity. A question that could be easily answered.

Enough dead enemies would allow both the Hut and Felix ample mana to recover. Eve had learned from Felix that he might even be able to reach Tier Four if placed in the center of the swamp. Apparently the currents of space bent mana in the area to the center. It was the most logical reason for the Tier Five monster the tribes claimed existed there. Eve’s recent elimination of the frog tribe using a borrowed knife of those from the snakes had gone without a hitch, and her next target was the lizard tribe.

Eve was saving the Snake tribe for last at Kudzu’s request, since he had plans for studying their Poison Element. She had said a brief passing prayer for the poison scaled bastards before consigning them in her mind to the tender mercies of her allied plant.

Stepping out of the shower Eve grimaced at the lack of soap. Hot water was relaxing, but without soap it just wasn’t the same. Unfortunately she hadn’t discovered anything in the area that would allow her to create soap without delaying progress. Kudzu could make it, but she shook her head at the thought.

It would be a waste of time now to create soap. Eve thought. After the swamp is fully my territory the issue can be addressed, until then luxuries can wait.

With that mindset, Eve allowed silver spores to coat her body. The level of cleanliness that nanites provided was without a doubt, better than soap, but the feeling just wasn’t the same. After a few short minutes of work, Blood wrapped around Eve once more in a comfortable outfit. She copied the battle robes from her brother’s role-playing game, the one with the same two letters made by coastal wizards. The scarlet red of Blood gave her a slightly demonic vibe that her blonde hair and silver eyes did little to dispel. Eve exited her room into the circular hallway the Hut now had. Her room occupied half of the inner circle, while the other half was taken by the hibernation chamber. The circular hallway let to the single airlock type door, which in turn led to the second door granting full access outside. These changes alone had required all the mana accumulated from disposing of the frog tribe, leaving nothing for Eve. Talisman of Dust gained no levels from the previous carnage.

Eve didn’t plan on letting the lizard tribe go either, instead she would reserve the entire tribe as food. Combining both tribes, and the rumored Tier Five in the swamps center should push her close to breaking Four. Unlike her previous leveling, the silver spores ensured she gained the maximum amount from every kill. Her affinity made it possible, when Craft was used in conjunction with Devour, nothing was lost to the gluttony of the System.

Eve shook her head as she exited the Hut. Learning that the System took a portion of every kill was an eye opening tidbit. She would never have figured it out if she wasn’t processing her own kills, now. Regardless, it wasn’t information she would spread either. Eve didn’t need Sight to see how bad of an idea it would be to inform others the System was robbing them. At best they were able to learn how to process their own kills like her. At worse the System realized it was losing stolen power, and did something drastic. She had no desire for either outcome, and thus had decided to do nothing.

Inaction was the best action at times.

One of the plethora of vines that surrounded the circular Hut in a thicket of massive proportions moved in front of her. Kudzu had taken to the ability to display text through life-attuned mana like a fish to water. It was his most useful talent right now, and from what she had been told, his humanoid form had taken extensive damage from the transit. With the main reason he even such a form, Brianna, in stasis the choice to stay fully plant was easily made. Eve understood the logic, and hoped that once the swamp was fully under control, it would provide the resources for Kudzu to reform his body.

Talking to a plant, no matter how intelligent, is only reinforcing isolationist behavior. Eve thought. While I cannot go back to the civilized world quite yet, having someone human looking to chat with would be nice. Kudzu’s male body was extremely easy on the eyes after all, heh.

“What’s our coverage of the edge at now?” Eve asked the vine when it was finally close enough.

A glowing twenty-seven percent showed above the vine tip’s end. Eve nodded and asked, “Underwater coverage?”

When the symbols for ten percent were shown, Eve frowned and said, “Deeper towards the bottom?”

A swift nod from the vine made her sigh. The current plethora of fish was immense, and if the waters were deeper below than above, it meant the swamp might potentially have more than one Tier Five. Even worse, they might have a Tier Six sleeping below. From what she guesstimated areas of immense mana concentration, such as this swamp which funneled mana to the center due to the spatial currents, were highly sought after. Monsters of a higher Tier could simply sit at the bottom of such a space, and enjoy an endless buffet of empowering mana. It would allow for an easier passage to the next Tier, even decreasing the time needed.

“Let’s operate on the assumption we have ongoing S.E.I.A.C. scenario for the bottom of the swamp.” Eve said, referencing one of the more popular tropes from Earth, “Don’t extend beneath until we have absolute control of up above, ok?”

The symbol for Ok flashed above the vine’s tip signaling understanding. Kudzu, far more than any other part of her family, understood well how the world worked. According to him, bugs ate plants, birds ate bugs, fish ate birds, and Kudzu ate anything. It was a twisted logic, but actually had a grain of rationale that worked well. Eve only regretted it had taken drastic shifts in her worldview to accept. On the other hand, as a predator, Kudzu was phenomenal.

The hunting strategies he learned, from stories she told, or his own experiences had crafted a plant that would be considered a pre-eminent bio-weapon on Earth. He could defend, attack, lure, trap, and even alter terrain. Reinforcements were merely a single burst of fecund growth away, and he had the ultimate camouflage.

No one looked twice at a plant, unless they were a specialized profession like Herbalist, Alchemist, or Farmer. Even better the System itself assisted in the camouflage preventing basic identification effects from granting extensive information.

Eve looked at Kudzu’s vine, and smirked.

Vine

A commonly seen type of swamp-vine.

“Such a cheat.” Eve grumbled as she moved off towards the lizard camp through a maze of vines that had been grown to protect the Hut. Without a doubt, only the most unobservant would think there was nothing suspicious about Kudzu’s rapid expansion. On the other hand, all attempts to curb him had been met with the rapid transition of idiot hunting parties into fertilizer. This meant that while the two tribes remaining knew there was something wrong, they didn’t have actionable intelligence.

Unlike a more developed society that would recognize Kudzu’s expansion as a grab for territory, the two remaining tribes looked upon it as merely another predator moving into the swamp. The vines were suspicious, but it simply meant the predator could manipulate plants. Eve wasn’t guessing, Kudzu’s infiltration of the two tribal villages had revealed a plethora of conversational goldmines. Besides the knowledge of who was cheating on who, or what child was expected to have great potential, she knew without question, Kudzu’s expansion was a minor matter.

The far more important matter at hand was what the frog tribe had done to lose the divine blessing. To the two tribes, only the intervention of the divine could explain the complete annihilation of another tribe. Many of the upper echelon appeared to believe the creatures in the swamp’s center had made a move. In order to find out the cause, both the Lizard and Snakes were beseeching higher powers. Of course, doing so required sacrifice. To this end, massive raiding parties were forming in both villages with an express purpose of acquiring sacrificial fuel.

One didn’t sacrifice their own if there was a choice, after all.

Eve was curious about the Divine they might call upon, here. After all, this was known as the Prison Plane. How did calling up above work in this type of place? It wasn’t really a pressing issue, since before any rituals had a chance, she would be harvesting the crop.

Arriving outside the Lizard tribe was the work of a few teleports, and Eve looked over the situation from below the water. The need for air was one of the more mortal concerns that no longer mattered. Her breathing was more ingrained reflex, than actual necessary action. Dust filtered the Air element seamlessly to her lungs allowing the reflex to work unhindered. Unlike eating, which Eve still enjoyed immensely, breathing fulfilled no higher function. It bothered her more than she was willing to admit, at how little changes demonstrated her inner monster.

Shrugging she flicked a small image message that would be lost in the murky waters to the vines surrounding her, “Everything set?”

“Affirmative.” Kudzu replied by text.

“Let’s pull apart these supports for the pile dwellings.” Eve signaled already starting to spread her silver spores, or silverspore, into the surrounding waters. The nanites spread rapidly as they transmuted the murky waters using Consume, Multiply, and Manipulate. Anything dropped into the waters now would receive the same treatment as something placed inside a high quality acid bath. Eve ignored the image of piranhas feeding that flashed through her mind. As she floated in the water a short distance away, one lake pile dwelling after another started to fall.

The entire Lizard tribe was thrown into chaos as their homes crumbled under the concentrated attack of Kudzu’s vines. Pollen was pumped into the air multiplying the panic effects and keeping a coherent response from forming. Hundreds of Tier Threes fell prey to the silverspore in the water below, their energy being stored into the Library. The slaughter would have been complete within minutes if it wasn’t for the interference of two Tier Four lizards working in tandem. Both the chief and shaman of the Lizard tribe managed to respond to the chaos, promptly organizing the remaining forces. Instead of attempting to fight, they opted to flee the disaster, more than likely planning to regroup at a later date.

Eve didn’t allow them the chance.

Staring coldly at those preparing to flee Eve reinforced her will and said, “Be fruitful and multiply.”

Silverspore nanites surged from beneath the water in a torrential cloud ripping into the temporary shield raised by the lizard shaman. Only the partially elementalized bodies of the two Tier Fours were able to effectively resist the attack. Eve withdrew her silverspore below the water rather than take a counterattack fighting both parties. Into the gap she created Kudzu’s vines surged focusing everything on the chief. With pure brute physical power, Kudzu grabbed the chief throwing him deeper into the swamp where more vines awaited. Eve instantly took advantage of the opportunity to attack the shaman, as planned prior.

Talismans of paper, inked in blood flew in a ring around Eve as she rose from the waters into full view of the enemy Tier Four. The shaman’s milky white eyes flickered behind Eve before refocusing fully on her. It was clear the female shaman realized there was no way to assist her mate without going through Eve first.

Water rose in concentric orbs around the lizard shaman, several of the orbs reinforcing her shield, while the others shot highly pressurized attacks at Eve. Grinning, the witch disdained her opponent’s struggles as the Water element entered the silverspore around her body. With ridiculous ease, the attacks were deconstructed into their base Element. A twist of will shifted the alignment of the elemental bonds, and tiny piece of plasma accelerated out of the silverspore. Trailing the plasma bolts were talismans custom built to crack shields.

Eve smirked as her counterattack hammered the shaman’s shield interrupting the lizard from launching more water. Drawing on the ample transmutable watery ammo all around, more plasma and talisman combination attacks flew from her silverspore. Even though the shaman was Tier Four, Eve’s attacks were the equivalent of hundreds of Tier Three casters at once, accompanied by shield breaking charms. The disparity in Tier was offset by the sheer quantity of attacks, causing the lizard shaman’s eyes to widen. Slowly, Eve started to move closer to the shaman, increasing the mental and magical pressure in conjunction with every stride. Balancing on the water was effortless as she simply lightened her body to become weightless. The image of balancing on treetops flashed through her mind before she focused once more on the battle at hand. Eve recognized the moment the lizard’s will to fight broke signaled by the creature attempting to retreat when the watery shield began to crack. A cold ruthless will backed by silver eyes of merciless disdain crushed the lizard’s attempt to flee.

A torrent of silverspore washed over the shaman penetrating their cracked shield. Moments later Eve turned away from the rapidly decomposing body as it was consumed. The surge of power into the Librarystrained her mental limits, but she managed to keep everything under wraps. Eve quickly teleported to the main fighting area where Kudzu’s vines were battling the Tier Four lizard chief. Eve immediately began assisting her ally, as the lizard chief had clearly used some sort of enrage Skill.

Normally that would be no issue for Kudzu, but the Skill the lizard chief had used also appeared to let him track the plant’s core. The battle had moved rapidly, approaching the Hut as the lizard’s tracking abilities granted him inhuman detective powers. Reeling in the silverspore around her, Eve compressed the nanites into a tiny basketball sized orb. The compressed orb was accelerated following the principles of a railgun. In the blink of an eye, Eve’s strike vaporize the left hand of the lizard chief. He probably wouldn’t even have noticed the wound as his arm began to regenerate like time lapse photography.

The silverspore made sure the ignorant chief took note.

Tendrils whipped out of the ball a moment after making contact with flesh. Like a cancerous growth from some eldritch monstrosity the silverspore engulfed the lizard chief’s left side binding itself tightly to the flesh in unbreakable bonds. Kudzu’s vines took immediate advantage of the distracted lizard by binding both the right arm and leg. Without the ability to leverage the massive strength granted by his enrage Skill, the chief’s fate was sealed.

Kudzu’s vines moved around the lizard chief’s trapped arm and legs. His sharpened thorns created a buzz-saw effect of inward facing fangs. While removing the arm and leg were only temporary due to the lizard’s inborn regeneration speed, it was enough to tip the balance. As a new arm or leg formed, Kudzu simply severed them once again. Eve wondered if it would be possible to farm the Tier Four for an endless number of regenerating limbs. Unfortunately the answer was clearly no, as the silverspore tendrils finally tore through enough of the lizard chief to reach his heart and brain.

Eve sighed as the possibility of endless Tier Four harvesting was answered when the limbs were eaten by Devourand smelted by Craft through the silver nanomachine dust. The amount of mana generated was pitiful indicating that while the limbs retained mana, the real stockpile was within the lizard’s torso and head. In other words, other than the heart and brain, nothing else was worth the effort. Eve theorized that since lizards back on Earth could sever their tails, perhaps the limbs were not supplied with mana, or mana structures.

Instead, like power lines, the mana is run to the part of the body that uses it. In essence, the heart and brains are power generators, while the rest of the body merely houses structures and power lines. Eve thought. If that is the case, then the loss of my limbs in transit could be explained.

If the choice was between losing a heart or arm, there was no choice. The arm would sacrificed by Eve without question, as without a heart before Talisman of Dust existed she would die. Moving her mind away from the bloody questions that still existed in her subconscious, she took stock.

Two Tier Fours, and several hundred Tier Three was a respectable harvest. Eve teleported to the Hut, opening the door and striding inside. The mud was effortlessly cleaned off her boots as she strode directly to the hibernation chamber where Felix was located.

It was time to repair the next component for success.